'What is the end of study,' is the word of this Play. To get the old books shut, but _not_ till they have been examined, _not_ till all the good in them has been taken out, not till we have made a _stand_ on them; to get the old books in their places, under our feet, and '_then_ to make progression' after we see where we are, is the proposal here--_here_ also. It is the shutting up of the old books, and the opening of the new ones, which is the business here. But _that_--that is not the proposal of an ignorant man (as this Poet himself takes pains to observe); it is not the proposition of a man who does not know what there is in books--who does not know but there is every thing in them that they claim to have in them, every thing that is good for life, _magic_ and all. An ignorant man is in awe of books, on account of his ignorance. He thinks there are all sorts of things in them. He is very diffident when it comes to any question in regard to them. He tells you that he is not '_high learned_,' and defers to his betters. Neither is this the proposition of a man who has read _a little_, who has only a smattering in books, as the Poet himself observes. It is the proposition of _a scholar_, who has read them _all_, or had them read for him and examined, who knows what is in them _all_, and what they are good for, and what they are not good for. This is the man who laughs at learning, and borrows her own speech to laugh her down with. _This_, and _not the ignorant man_, it is who opens at last 'great nature's' gate to us, and tells us to come out and learn of her, _because_ that which old books did _not_ 'clasp in,' that which old philosophies have 'not _dreamt_ of,'--the lore of laws not written yet in books of man's devising, the lore of _that_ of which man's ordinary life consisteth is _here_, uncollected, waiting to be spelt out. _King_. _How well he's read_ to reason _against reading_. is the inference _here_. _Dumain_. _Proceeded_ well to _stop_ all good _proceeding._